As long-time readers know, attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) offices aren't new, especially in the Pacific Northwest, the heart of Antifastan. If it's not the near-nightly attacks on the ICE office in Portland, it's gathering at the regional ICE detention center in Tacoma, Wash., to bray and distract ICE agents. And it's in Tacoma, in 2019, where we see a model for the ambush that occurred on July 4 in Texas.
Granted, the Texas attempted assassinations this week were a stepped-up version of what happened six years ago.
Last week, ten saboteurs, outfitted in black tactical gear, attacked the ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. They showered the facility with fireworks to draw agents out of the Prairieland Detention Center. When police responded to the attack, a nearby sniper shot an officer in the neck. That officer miraculously survived.
The ten are all charged with multiple federal crimes, including attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
The FBI is looking for an eleventh attacker, an ex-Marine reservist, Benjamin Song, who was given a less-than-honorable discharge. AR-15-type rifles registered to Song were found in the woods near the ICE facility.
The attackers on the ICE detention facility in Tacoma in 2019 attempted to use similar distractions to set up an ambush.
Then, one man, Willem van Spronsen, a 69-year-old Antifa activist and member of the John Brown Gun Club, an Antifa-related gun group, attacked the ICE facility by trying to stage an explosion at the facility's propane tank, in order to draw out agents and shoot them. He also hoped the explosion would free people locked inside the ICE facility.
Months before Willem Van Spronsen carried out his domestic terrorist attack against @Icegov, CNN profiled the far-left militia group to which he belonged, and encouraged their viewers to support the group. pic.twitter.com/KO1gm7XTkj
— Far Left Watch (@FarLeftWatch) July 14, 2019
Instead, von Spronsen was shot graveyard dead by four Tacoma Police officers who responded to the early morning attack, opening fire when he refused to drop his rifle.
1 year ago this morning, Willem Van Spronsen was killed by police while fighting to disable deportation buses at NWDC, a private immigrant detainment facility.
— PNW Youth Liberation Front (@PNWYLF) July 13, 2020
Today we fight on, and remember him and all others killed because they refused to just stand by.
Will you? pic.twitter.com/w5M63PNv8O
Von Spronson was feted as a hero and martyr by his comrades who wished him to "rest in power," their empty version of "thoughts and prayers."
Willem Van Spronsen attempted to fire bomb @ICEgov.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) July 14, 2019
Several of his fellow ANTIFA members are celebrating him and inciting more death. @tedcruz @RepGosar @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/ZRkYzMXIbA
Sometimes, you'll see his name tagged at Antifa operations like this one in June, when Antifa activists tried to block ICE agents from leaving the facility with illegal aliens.
Additionally, Antifa hails Willem Van Spronsen as a hero, often referring to him as a martyr.
— Katie Daviscourt 📸 (@KatieDaviscourt) July 4, 2025
His name was recently graffitied on the Seattle ICE office in Tukwila in June, when the group tried trapping federal agents inside to prevent ICE from leaving with migrant detainees. pic.twitter.com/JDI2sWEKHn
This post from Antifa Watch notes that von Spronson came armed with flares and other explosives to set off an explosion using the exposed propane tank, but that the episode has been rewritten to downplay his ultimate aim: to kill ICE agents.
The Wikipedia entry for the 2019 ICE attack as well as mainstream media reports heavily obfuscated the truth, making no mention of him raising his rifle or officers specifically referring to being 'baited' into an 'ambush'
— AntifaWatch (@AntifaWatch2) July 8, 2025
Tacoma PD use of force report -https://t.co/9DXgb4utE9 pic.twitter.com/6ybnnIkjMD
We shouldn't be surprised when Antifa and their anarchist comrades arm-up to commit violence. They've been doing it for years and have their own gun club. They're seldom unarmed.
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